Meta Demonstrates AI-Powered Speech-to-Speech Translation System
2022-10-27
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1Facebook parent company Meta has built a technology tool designed to directly translate spoken speech from one language to another.
2Meta recently released a video that demonstrated how the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool can translate between English and the Hokkien language.
3In the video, Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg explained that the project required different, unusual development methods.
4That is because Hokkien is mainly a spoken language.
5It does not have a widely used written form.
6Generally, developers of translation systems train AI models on very large amounts of written text in the target languages.
7This arms the system with many different language examples and combinations in an effort to produce the most correct results.
8In general, AI-powered translation systems have improved greatly in recent years.
9It is now easier than ever to get translation help online or on devices to make international communication better.
10But one problem with such systems is that there are delays linked to the translation process.
11For example, when the system records spoken speech, the words are first converted into text and then translated by an AI system.
12Then, the translated words are converted back into speech so they can be heard.
13The unusual part of the Meta project is that the development team did not have large amounts of Hokkien language text to feed into the AI system.
14Hokkien is a version, or dialect, of Chinese.
15It is spoken by millions of people in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian.
16It is also spoken by many people in Taiwan and some communities in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
17The language is generally passed down through generations of families.
18Meta notes that Hokkien is one of nearly 3,500 living languages that are mainly spoken and do not have a widely used writing system.
19The company says its AI developers are aiming to create speech-to-speech translation tools that would cover most of the world's languages.
20Earlier this year, Meta announced two new AI projects.
21One is called No Language Left Behind.
22Zuckerberg said in a video that effort is designed to create translation systems to cover "hundreds" of world languages.
23The other is called the Universal Speech Translator.
24The goal of that project is to build a system that can produce "speech-to-speech translation across all languages," the company said in a statement.
25Meta's latest system involving Hokkien was developed as part of its Universal Speech Translator project.
26"The ability to communicate with anyone in any language - that's a superpower people have dreamed of forever, and AI is going to deliver that within our lifetimes," Zuckerberg said.
27Meta said it used several different methods to create the new system to translate to and from Hokkien and English.
28The team trained its AI models on written text examples from another version of Chinese, Mandarin, which is similar to Hokkien.
29In addition, Meta developers used an encoding tool designed to compare spoken Hokkien to similar English text.
30The team also worked closely with Hokkien speakers to make sure the results were correct.
31Meta said it aims to use the same methods used for Hokkien to create speech-to-speech translation systems for many more languages in the future.
32The company said, however, that its Hokkien translation model "is still a work in progress."
33It noted that the system is currently only able to translate one full sentence at a time.
34I'm Bryan Lynn.
1Facebook parent company Meta has built a technology tool designed to directly translate spoken speech from one language to another. 2Meta recently released a video that demonstrated how the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool can translate between English and the Hokkien language. 3In the video, Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg explained that the project required different, unusual development methods. That is because Hokkien is mainly a spoken language. It does not have a widely used written form. 4Generally, developers of translation systems train AI models on very large amounts of written text in the target languages. This arms the system with many different language examples and combinations in an effort to produce the most correct results. 5In general, AI-powered translation systems have improved greatly in recent years. It is now easier than ever to get translation help online or on devices to make international communication better. 6But one problem with such systems is that there are delays linked to the translation process. For example, when the system records spoken speech, the words are first converted into text and then translated by an AI system. Then, the translated words are converted back into speech so they can be heard. 7The unusual part of the Meta project is that the development team did not have large amounts of Hokkien language text to feed into the AI system. 8Hokkien is a version, or dialect, of Chinese. It is spoken by millions of people in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian. It is also spoken by many people in Taiwan and some communities in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. The language is generally passed down through generations of families. 9Meta notes that Hokkien is one of nearly 3,500 living languages that are mainly spoken and do not have a widely used writing system. The company says its AI developers are aiming to create speech-to-speech translation tools that would cover most of the world's languages. 10Earlier this year, Meta announced two new AI projects. One is called No Language Left Behind. Zuckerberg said in a video that effort is designed to create translation systems to cover "hundreds" of world languages. 11The other is called the Universal Speech Translator. The goal of that project is to build a system that can produce "speech-to-speech translation across all languages," the company said in a statement. Meta's latest system involving Hokkien was developed as part of its Universal Speech Translator project. 12"The ability to communicate with anyone in any language - that's a superpower people have dreamed of forever, and AI is going to deliver that within our lifetimes," Zuckerberg said. 13Meta said it used several different methods to create the new system to translate to and from Hokkien and English. The team trained its AI models on written text examples from another version of Chinese, Mandarin, which is similar to Hokkien. 14In addition, Meta developers used an encoding tool designed to compare spoken Hokkien to similar English text. The team also worked closely with Hokkien speakers to make sure the results were correct. 15Meta said it aims to use the same methods used for Hokkien to create speech-to-speech translation systems for many more languages in the future. 16The company said, however, that its Hokkien translation model "is still a work in progress." It noted that the system is currently only able to translate one full sentence at a time. 17I'm Bryan Lynn. 18Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from Facebook, Google and the South China Morning Post. 19_________________________________________________________________ 20Words in This Story 21translate - v. to change words from one language into another 22artificial intelligence - n. the development of computer systems with the ability to perform work that normally requires human intelligence 23text - n. written words 24convert - adj. to change the appearance, form or purpose of something 25encode - v. to represent complex information in a simple or short way 26_______________________________________________________________________ 27What do you think of this story? We want to hear from you. We have a new comment system. Here is how it works: 28Each time you return to comment on the Learning English site, you can use your account and see your comments and replies to them. Our comment policy is here.